Multipotentiality,Giftedness, and Career Choice: A Review

The giftedness and career-choice literatures have traditionally spoken in different terms about the same phenomenon, multipotentiality. Multipotentialed individuals have numerous and diverse abilities and interests. Appropriate interventions are necessary to help them cope successfully with the abundance of career choices available to them. This review links the giftedness and career-choice literatures through a discussion of the concept of multipotentiality and explores ensuing practical implications and challenges to the overall idea.     

Evocation and characterization of percepts of apparent motion on the face

The percepts evoked by sequential stimulation of sites in close spatial proximity (<2.5 cm) on the face were studied. Both method-of-limits and magnitude-estimation procedures were used to identify and characterize alterations in the percepts produced by systematic changes in the temporal and spatial parameters of the sequence. Each site was stimulated by a vertically oriented row of miniature vibrating probes. Apparent motion was consistently perceived when the delay between the onsets of sequentially activated rows (interstimulus onset interval, or ISOI) fell within a relatively narrow range of values, the lower limit of which approximated 5 msec. Both the upper limit and the perceived smoothness and continuity of the motion percepts (goodness of motion) increased with the duration for which each row stimulated the skin over the range evaluated, 15–185 msec. For the successive activation of only two rows, goodness of motion was not influenced by changes in their separation from 0.4 to 2.5 cm. The ISOI values at which magnitude estimates of goodness of motion were highest increased with the duration for which each row stimulated the skin. As such, maximum goodness of motion decreased with increases in the apparent velocity of motion. When the number of sequentially activated rows was increased from two to four or more, the quality of the motion percepts improved. For the successive activation of multiple closely spaced rows, values of ISOI at which numerical estimates of goodness of motion were highest approximated integral fractions of the duration for which each row stimulated the skin. In this situation, the probes rose and fell in a regular, step-locked rhythm to simulate an edge-like or rectangular object moving across the skin. The goodness of motion so attained was relatively independent of the apparent velocity of motion.     

Family-expressed emotion,childhood-onset depression,and childhood-onset schizophrenia spectrum disorders: Is expressed emotion a nonspecific correlate of child psychopathology or a specific risk factor for depression?

Expressed emotion (EE) was examined, using the brief Five Minute Speech Sample measure, in families of (1) children with depressive disorders, (2) children with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, and (3) normal controls screened for the absence of psychiatric disorder. Consistent with the hypothesis of some specificity in the association between EE and the form of child disorder, rates of EE were significantly higher among families of depressed children compared to families of normal controls and families of children with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Within the depressed group, the presence of a comorbid disruptive behavior disorder was associated with high levels of critical EE, underscoring the need to attend to comorbid patterns and subtypes of EE in future research.This research was supported by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation as part of their Network on Risk and Protective Factors in the Major Mental Disorders. The authors wish to express their appreciation to Sybil Zaden and Ana Magana-Amato for their assistance coding the FMSS-EE data, to Gwen Gordon for her assistance with data analysis, and to the families participating in the project.     

‘So you did what you wanted then’: Discourse analysis,personal agency,and psychotherapy

This paper explores issues concerning personal agency in discursive psychology and discourse analysis, with a particular emphasis on agency in terms of motivational accounts of the person. Issues are discussed in relation to the efficacy, acceptability, and accessibility of discourse analytic research for the practising psychotherapist. We suggest that such an approach may raise problems in four areas. First, we argue that without explicit theorization of the subject as language user, discourse analysis may be vulnerable to the charge of determinism. Second, theorization of the subject as language user may be required to account successfully for individual consistency and continuity of identity. Third, although claiming to critique commonsense notions of subjectivity, implicit dualist assumptions facilitate a reading of discursive psychology that is compatible with a motivational model of the person. Finally, we argue that discursive psychology itself implies a particular model of the strategically motivated language user. We conclude that, although these issues require clarification, discursive psychology and discourse analysis have much to offer psychotherapy research.     

A model for teaching research ethics

A model is described for implementing a program in research ethics education in the face of federal and institutional mandates and current resource, disciplinary, and infrastructure limitations. Also discussed are the historical background, content and evaluation process of the workshop at the heart of the program, which reaches a diverse group of over 250 students per year—from first-year graduate students in basic research labs to clinical fellows. The workshop addresses central issues in both everyday laboratory ethics and in larger societal questions. Goals include improving overall awareness of ethics guidelines and philosophy and enhancing skills in identifying and then analyzing the ethical components of situations. Pedagogies used and their effectiveness and that of the overall workshop and extended program are addressed. Programs like these have initiated a shift in the culture of basic research, which is a critical need given the current atmosphere.     

Modeling,tuition, and sanction effects on self-control at different ages

The effects of age, modeling, tuition, and sanctions on self-control of motor behavior were examined. Children 6, 7, 9, and 11 years of age individually participated. A male model either: (a) instructed and performed “Simon Says” in the traditional manner, (b) introduced the sanction “Don't” on the inhibition trials, (c) performed an action that differed from the instruction, or (d) gave instructions only. Activation latency and inhibition error were influenced most greatly by the actions of the model and the introduction of a negative sanction, whereas tuition was less effective. Age differences were present for inhibition errors as well as activation latency and error. The discussion focused on the differential effects of modeling and tuition on deviant responding.     

The effect of affirmative action on attributions about minority group members

In the first study subjects were given information about an applicant to graduate school and asked to rate his qualifications. The information experimentally varied (a) whether the school had an affirmative action policy, (b) the ethnicity of the applicant, and (c) whether the applicant was accepted or rejected. Based on Kelley's discussion of the discounting and augmentation principles, it was predicted that the minority applicant would be rated as less qualified when the university was committed to an affirmative action program. The reverse pattern was predicted for the non-minority applicant. The results supported the first prediction but not the second. Experiment 2 was designed to eliminate alternative interpretations of the data and the same results were found. Possible interpretations for the failure of affirmative action in affecting the ratings of nonminority applicants are discussed.     

Further evidence for meaning change in impression formation

Hamilton and Zanna (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1974, 29, 649–654) demonstrated that the meaning of an attribute as rated on connotatively related scales changed as a function of context desirability. This finding was viewed as supporting a meaning change interpretation of context effects in impression formation. Kaplan (Memory and Cognition, 1975, 3, 375–380, Exp. 1) found that similar changes also occurred on scales unrelated in meaning to the test attribute and argued that changes on both kinds of scales were due to halo effects produced by the contexts. Controlling for possible scaling artifacts, the first experiment reported here showed that substantially greater changes occurred on related than on unrelated scales. Kaplan (1975, Exp. 2) also found that the magnitude of context-induced differences in judgments of trait likability was not increased by creating contexts denotatively related to the test attributes. Adding measures of connotative meaning, the second experiment in this paper showed that substantially greater context-induced changes did occur on related meaning scales and, in contrast to Kaplan, on trait likability for the denotatively related contexts. The results of each experiment are consistent with a meaning change position but would not be expected on the basis of the halo effects model.     

A THERMODYNAMIC THEORY OF THE ORIGIN AND HIERARCHICAL EVOLUTION OF LIVING SYSTEMS

Growing interest in the origin of life, the physical foundations of biological theory, and the evolution of animal social systems has led to increasing efforts to understand the processes by which elements or living systems at one level of organizational complexity combine to form stable systems of higher order. J. Bronowski saw the need to extend or reformulate evolutionary theory to deal with the hierarchy problem and to account for the evolution of systems of “stratified stability.” The hierarchy problem has become a matter of great interest also in nonequilibrium thermodynamic theory. An effort is made here to develop an abstract, phenomenological model, based on the laws of thermodynamics, to account for the origin and hierarchical evolution of living systems. It is argued that the principle of minimum entropy production, developed by I. Prigogine, applies generally to all thermodynamic systems and processes and is implicit in an extended and more complete formulation of the second law of thermodynamics. From this are derived a thermodynamic criterion and a principle of thermodynamic selection governing the formation of stable systems of “elements” of various levels of organization. Thermodynamic selection gives rise to the creation of “elements” having increasingly “open” characteristic structures which may combine spontaneously to form “social” or crystalline systems capable of growing and reproducing themselves through processes of fissioning or budding. Such simple, self-reproducing systems are capable of evolving by natural selection, which is seen to be a special case of the more general process of thermodynamic selection. The principle of natural selection, thus formulated, has the character of a fundamental physical law. Self-reproducing systems with suitably open hereditary programs may combine to form stable social systems, which may grow and reproduce as a unit. In this way self-reproducing systems of increasing hierarchical order, size, and organizational complexity may evolve through processes of thermodynamic (natural) selection. Some implications of this open-ended model and opportunities for testing its empirical and theoretical utility are explored.     

Psychological effects of a suicide prevention unit on adolescents' levels of stress,anxiety and hopelessness: Implications for counselling psychologists

This study examined the effects of a senior high school suicide prevention unit on students' levels of stress, anxiety, and hopelessness. An experimental group that received instruction in suicide prevention, and that demonstrated special needs, i.e. low social support, high stress, high anxiety, and/or high degrees of hopelessness, was compared with an experimental group that did not demonstrate special needs, and with two control groups that received no instruction, one with, and one without, special needs. Results indicated that both the experimental group with special needs and the experimental group without special needs showed significant increases in factual knowledge; the experimental group with special needs showed significant change on psychological variables, while the control group with special needs did not. No significant differential changes were noted between the experimental group with special needs and the control group with special needs. Implications for counselling psychologists are considered.